Spanish Adventure Part 2

 

Spanish Adventure

Part Two.

 

Overnight in Valladolid and another bright sunny morning to explore the old historic town. Not much time to do anything with the prospect of temperatures reaching into the thirties as the day progressed and so did we, south towards our next destination in Caceres 217 miles. The old part of the town had restricted access and parking was in a secure municipal underground facility that was in amongst the narrow streets. You have to go slow as junctions are not marked and there is no right of way. I remember a moron in a white van even trying to overtake on a street that was only one car width. That was the most eventful part of the journey. It was all motorway work keeping at a speed not quite with the lorries. The long inclines were too much for 602cc with frequent excursions into third gear to cope with the load we were carrying and mindful of the cost of fuel at 2.20 euros per litre. Care with the throttle to get as many miles as we could from each drop of fuel.

The hotel was right on the main square and it being a Friday night it was a bit noisy. We grabbed a beer in a bar and watched the world go by for a bit and then went to a restaurant for a meal. Accommodation for Saturday night was a problem with booking as I had a plan to visit Cordoba but hotels in our price range were just not available. Saturday is wedding day in Spain and finding paces if difficult so the reason for the location of the next hotel. For want of a better description it was a gastropub. It was in a relatively remote village of Hornachuelsos on country lanes, some 175 miles away and more than four hours of slow driving up hill and down dale hairpin bends and steep off camber corners to keep you on the ball. 

We arrived just in time to pick up the keys to the room and get two beers before they closed up at 4pm until 7pm when they opened for the evening session. In this small village there was no street parking only a car park at the back of a block of flats that everyone seemed to use. It was not a secure set up.  We escaped for a walk around the village and found the church and the castle. Highlight was finding the Ferreteria. It is as the name suggests somewhere to ferret around in. It is the local general store which has everything in from electrical goods to building materials, cooking utensils and stationary. A gold mine of stuff!

We eventually ate in the pub and after a walk around the village left the locals to it which was around the pizzeria. There was not much to do there so it was not surprising they had a play with the car stealing the tow ball cover and bouncing it a few feet from where it was parked over night. Other than that incident people were very respectful and left things well alone and in other parking areas there were no problems.

Hornachuelsos was bitter sweet and no breakfast as they did not open again until 10am. I left there annoyed but by the time we had reached the next town we found somewhere to have breakfast  my demeanour improved. Our next destination less than a hundred miles away and again another country lanes drive to Ronda and a two night stop in a five star Paradore.